Ordinal Numbers in Italian

In Brief

Italian ordinal numbers show position in a sequence: primo (first), secondo (second), terzo (third), and so on. They normally behave like adjectives, so their ending agrees with the noun: il primo giorno, la prima volta, i primi giorni, le prime settimane. Learn the first ten as individual words; higher ordinals usually end in -esimo.

Overview

An ordinal number tells you where someone or something comes in an order. English uses forms such as “first,” “second,” and “tenth”; Italian uses primo, secondo, and decimo. You will meet them in addresses, building floors, rankings, chapters, anniversaries, and everyday expressions such as per la prima volta (“for the first time”).

This is an A1 topic because the basic forms are common and the central rule is simple. The important difference from English is agreement. An Italian ordinal acts much like an adjective (a describing word): its ending changes to match the noun (a word for a person, place, thing, or idea) in gender and number. English “first” never changes, but Italian has primo, prima, primi, and prime.

The first ten forms deserve special attention because several cannot be predicted from the ordinary counting numbers. Knowing tre (“three”), for example, does not by itself give you terzo (“third”). Once these core forms are secure, the pattern for most higher numbers becomes much more regular.

How It Works

The first ten ordinal numbers

The dictionary form is masculine singular, ending in -o. The table also shows the feminine singular form, which ends in -a.

Position	Masculine singular	Feminine singular	English
1st	primo	prima	first
2nd	secondo	seconda	second
3rd	terzo	terza	third
4th	quarto	quarta	fourth
5th	quinto	quinta	fifth
6th	sesto	sesta	sixth
7th	settimo	settima	seventh
8th	ottavo	ottava	eighth
9th	nono	nona	ninth
10th	decimo	decima	tenth

Notice a few forms that are easy to confuse. “Third” is terzo, not a form built directly by adding an ending to tre. “Sixth” is sesto, with one s in the middle, while “seventh” is settimo, with double tt.

Agreement with the noun

Italian nouns have grammatical gender: they are treated as masculine or feminine. They also have number: singular means one, and plural means more than one. The ordinal must match both features.

Noun type	Ending	Example	English
Masculine singular	-o	il secondo piano	the second floor
Feminine singular	-a	la seconda porta	the second door
Masculine plural	-i	i secondi piani	the second floors
Feminine plural	-e	le seconde porte	the second doors

This is the same four-ending pattern used by many Italian adjectives. The article usually agrees too: il primo treno, la prima lezione, i primi treni, le prime lezioni.

The noun determines the form, not the speaker or owner. A male speaker still says la mia prima volta because volta is feminine. Similarly, Marco è la prima persona ad arrivare uses feminine prima because persona is a feminine noun, even though Marco is male.

Normal position: before the noun

Ordinals generally come before the noun:

• il terzo capitolo — the third chapter
• la quinta domanda — the fifth question
• il decimo giorno — the tenth day

The article normally comes first, followed by the ordinal and then the noun: article + ordinal + noun. Other adjectives may follow the noun: la prima giornata difficile (“the first difficult day”).

An ordinal can also stand alone when the missing noun is clear. It still agrees with that understood noun:

• Quale autobus prendi? Il secondo. — Which bus are you taking? The second one.
• Quale porta? La terza. — Which door? The third one.

Here secondo is masculine because the understood noun is autobus; terza is feminine because the understood noun is porta.

Higher ordinal numbers

From 11th onward, most ordinals are formed from a cardinal number (an ordinary counting number such as eleven or twenty) plus -esimo. Usually, the final vowel of the cardinal is removed first:

Cardinal	Change	Ordinal	English
undici	undic- + -esimo	undicesimo	eleventh
dodici	dodic- + -esimo	dodicesimo	twelfth
venti	vent- + -esimo	ventesimo	twentieth
trenta	trent- + -esimo	trentesimo	thirtieth
cento	cent- + -esimo	centesimo	hundredth
mille	mill- + -esimo	millesimo	thousandth

The resulting form still changes for agreement: l’undicesimo giorno, l’undicesima pagina, i ventesimi classificati. Compound forms are normally written as one word, just like compound cardinal numbers: ventunesimo (twenty-first), ventiduesimo (twenty-second), ventitreesimo (twenty-third).

For a beginner, it is enough to memorize the first ten and recognize -esimo as the usual sign of a higher ordinal. More detail appears in “Beyond the Basics” below.

Examples in Context

Italian	English	Note
È la prima volta che visito Firenze.	It is the first time I have visited Florence.	Feminine singular to match volta
Il nostro ufficio è al secondo piano.	Our office is on the second floor.	Masculine singular to match piano
Gira a destra alla terza strada.	Turn right at the third street.	Feminine singular to match strada
Il quarto esercizio è difficile.	The fourth exercise is difficult.	Masculine singular to match esercizio
Marta è arrivata quinta.	Marta finished fifth.	Feminine form referring to Marta
Questa è la sesta fermata.	This is the sixth stop.	Feminine singular to match fermata
Vivono nel settimo appartamento a sinistra.	They live in the seventh apartment on the left.	Ordinal before a masculine noun
Oggi è l’ottavo giorno del viaggio.	Today is the eighth day of the trip.	The article is shortened before a vowel
La nostra squadra è al nono posto.	Our team is in ninth place.	Fixed ranking pattern with al ... posto
Leggete il decimo capitolo per domani.	Read the tenth chapter for tomorrow.	Masculine singular direct object
I primi giorni in una città nuova sono intensi.	The first days in a new city are intense.	Masculine plural to match giorni
Le seconde possibilità sono importanti.	Second chances are important.	Feminine plural to match possibilità
Sono l’undicesima persona in fila.	I am the eleventh person in line.	Agreement is with feminine persona
Festeggiano il ventesimo anniversario.	They are celebrating the twentieth anniversary.	Higher ordinal in -esimo
Ho finito per primo.	I finished first.	per primo expresses who did something first

Common Mistakes

Leaving the ordinal unchanged

• Wrong: la primo volta
• Right: la prima volta
• Why: Volta is feminine singular, so primo must change to prima. Unlike English “first,” the Italian word agrees with its noun.

Using a cardinal number where an ordinal is required

• Wrong: il due piano
• Right: il secondo piano
• Why: Due tells you how many floors; secondo identifies a floor’s place in the sequence. After a noun, a numeral can sometimes be a label, as in camera due (“room two”), but that is a different structure.

Putting the ordinal after the noun in an ordinary phrase

• Awkward: la pagina terza
• Natural: la terza pagina
• Why: In normal everyday Italian, an ordinal usually precedes the noun. Post-noun position occurs in some titles, labels, and formal or historical naming patterns, but it is not the beginner default.

Copying English date ordinals

• Wrong: il quindicesimo agosto for “August 15th”
• Right: il quindici agosto
• Why: Italian normally uses cardinal numbers for calendar dates. The main exception is the first day of a month: il primo maggio (“May 1st”).

Forgetting what controls agreement when the noun is omitted

• Wrong: Quale porta? Il terzo.
• Right: Quale porta? La terza.
• Why: Even when porta is not repeated, the article and ordinal remain feminine because the understood noun is feminine.

Confusing sesto and settimo

• Wrong: il sesto giorno when you mean “the seventh day”
• Right: il settimo giorno
• Why: Sesto means sixth; settimo means seventh. Learn the forms in short phrases rather than as an isolated list.

Usage Notes

Floors do not always map neatly across countries

In Italy, the entrance level of a building is usually il piano terra (“the ground floor”). The level above it is il primo piano, then il secondo piano. For speakers of American English, this means Italian il primo piano often corresponds to the “second floor” in the United States. The grammatical form is straightforward, but the building convention can cause real-world confusion.

Use a + article to say on which floor something is: al primo piano, al terzo piano. With a vowel, use all’: all’ottavo piano.

Dates, centuries, and labels follow their own conventions

For dates, use a cardinal number except with the first of the month:

• il primo gennaio — January 1st
• il due gennaio — January 2nd
• il venticinque aprile — April 25th

Room, bus, line, and chapter numbers may be treated as labels rather than positions. A hotel can say camera 12, read camera dodici, while la dodicesima camera means “the twelfth room” in an ordered set. Both are possible, but they answer different questions: a label identifies; an ordinal ranks or orders.

Useful expressions with primo

Several common patterns are worth learning as whole units:

• per la prima volta — for the first time
• a prima vista — at first sight
• in primo luogo — firstly; in the first place
• di prima classe — first-class
• essere il primo / la prima a... — to be the first to...

In Sono stato il primo a rispondere (“I was the first to answer”), a introduces the action that followed. The feminine equivalent is Sono stata la prima a rispondere.

Beyond the Basics: Advanced Use

You do not need to master all of these points at A1, but they explain forms you will meet later.

Spelling of compound ordinals

Most compound ordinals are a single word and carry the agreement ending only at the very end: ventunesima, trentaduesimo, centocinquantesimo. The productive -esimo rule is very useful, but spelling is not always a mechanical matter of deleting the last letter. In particular, compounds ending in tre retain the full element before the suffix: ventitreesimo (“twenty-third”). When in doubt about a long or uncommon ordinal, check a dictionary rather than inventing a spelling.

The older forms undecimo and duodecimo also exist for eleventh and twelfth, especially in learned, historical, or fixed contexts. In ordinary modern use, undicesimo and dodicesimo are the transparent forms learners should produce first.

Names of rulers, popes, and historical events

Ordinals often follow a personal name or title in regnal names:

• Carlo III — Charles III, read Carlo Terzo
• Giovanni Paolo II — John Paul II, read Giovanni Paolo Secondo

Roman numerals are common in writing, while the spoken form is ordinal. Similar conventions appear in names of conferences, competitions, and recurring events, though actual event titles vary between ordinal words, Roman numerals, and cardinal labels.

Fractions and nouns derived from ordinals

The same forms can become nouns. Un decimo means “one tenth,” and due terzi means “two thirds.” Agreement and plural marking then follow the noun-like use: un quarto, tre quarti. These are fraction expressions, so their full system is best learned separately; the connection helps explain why familiar ordinal forms appear without another noun.

Some ordinal forms also have established noun meanings. Il secondo can mean “the second course” in a meal, and un secondo means “a second” as a unit of time. Context, not the form alone, tells you whether secondo is an ordinal, a noun, or even the preposition meaning “according to.”

Word order as a stylistic choice

Before the noun is the neutral position: il primo capitolo. After the noun, an ordinal may sound like an official designation, a title, or an older literary pattern. You may encounter forms such as atto primo (“Act One”) or a ruler’s name followed by primo, secondo, and so on. Recognize these patterns, but keep ordinal + noun as your everyday default.

Practice Tips

1. Build four-form sets. Take one ordinal each day and say it with four nouns: primo giorno, prima settimana, primi giorni, prime settimane. This trains agreement instead of mere list memorization.
2. Describe real sequences. Label the first ten chapters of a book, stops on a route, or people in a race. Say complete phrases with articles: il quarto capitolo, la sesta fermata, il secondo concorrente.
3. Contrast positions with quantities. Pair a cardinal and an ordinal: due piani (“two floors”) versus il secondo piano (“the second floor”). This prevents the common habit of using counting numbers as English-style labels everywhere.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Cardinal Numbers — ordinary counting numbers are the base for understanding quantities and forming most higher ordinals.
• Related use: Time & Dates — dates normally use cardinal numbers, with primo as the important exception for the first day of a month.